Executions and enslavement: Eritrea commits war crimes in Ethiopia’s Tigray region Singer Gary Wright is dead

Eritrean forces have committed atrocities in the northern region of Tigray in neighboring Ethiopia despite a ceasefire, according to Amnesty International. For months, civilians have been extrajudicially executed and women sexually enslaved, the human rights group said Monday. Eritrean soldiers also committed rape and looting. The acts amounted to war crimes and possible crimes against humanity, Amnesty said.

Raped or sexually enslaved

The Ethiopian government and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) signed a ceasefire in November 2022, brokered by the African Union, after two years of war. The Eritrean armed forces were allied with the Ethiopian government at the time.

Amnesty International staff spoke to 11 women who said they had been raped or sexually enslaved since the ceasefire. In addition, more than 40 women from a local community organization gave similar stories. Some were raped in a military camp operated by the Eritrean armed forces, others in their own homes or in homes occupied by the armed forces, the report said.

Extrajudicial executions of civilians

Amnesty also spoke to witnesses, survivors and relatives of at least 20 civilians who were deliberately killed when houses were searched by Eritrean troops. In addition, a local social worker counted more than a hundred extrajudicial executions of civilians. However, Amnesty could not independently confirm this.

According to the UN, several hundred thousand people have been killed in the conflict since November 2020. The research group International Crisis Group (ICG) described the conflict in the densely populated country on the Horn of Africa with its 120 million inhabitants as “one of the deadliest in the world”. (sda/dpa)